Posted by mom
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Nov 29, 2011 at 4:58 pm

mvwsd just doesn't know what to do with themselves. If you'd left things the way they were 4 years ago you'd have Slater School.
How sad that one program the PACT was allowed to disrupt all the kids and schools.

Posted by MV resident
a resident of North Whisman
on Nov 29, 2011 at 9:37 pm

It wasn't PACT that disrupted the schools. PACT had no desire to move from Slater, but then-acting superintendent Eleanor Yick and the "geniuses" on the school board thought it was so-o-o-o clever to move PACT to Castro in order to cover up Castro's lousy test scores. Needless to say that turned into the complete fiasco everyone else knew it would be and the district ended up opening a school (Stevenson) just for PACT.

If the school closure had been based on proximity as it should have been they would have closed Huff which is only a couple of blocks from Bubb. Of course you'll never hear that from Goldman who was principal of Huff at the time.

Posted by Interested Observer
a resident of another community
on Dec 1, 2011 at 1:14 am

To MV Resident: if you analyzed the scores at Slater School, you'd quickly learn that the PACT program "covered up" the lousy scores of the neighborhood students. Student achievement at Castro was much higher than Slater .....once you excluded the PACT student scores. PACT was not moved to Castro to improve scores!!

Posted by Ned
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Dec 1, 2011 at 6:53 am

I've been listening to this tune for over 20 years. Mountain View scores are low at most schools due to nearly 50% enrollment of illegals and anchor babies. The City has done a great job of encouraging their illegal behavior, so now property owner are stuck trying to get their kids into whatever program, PACT or DI, or school, Huff, Bubb, that have decent scores. We should all thank the city government for the situation. It is they that have encouraged the Day Worker Center and other policies that will only keep the schools at the bottom of the pile.

PACT!! PACT!!! self serving program for parents with to much time on there hands. District gave them there own school at the cost of every student, teacher, working parent and redistricting our neighborhoods.

Posted by MV resident
a resident of North Whisman
on Dec 1, 2011 at 8:51 pm

"Student achievement at Castro was much higher than Slate once you excluded PACT"

Castro had the lowest test scores in the district by far, period. The year after PACT moved there they went way up. Do the math.

"PACT!! PACT!!! self serving program for parents with to much time on there hands. District gave them there own school at the cost of every student, teacher, working parent and redistricting our neighborhoods."

Once again this was an outgrowth of the original incredibly stupid decisioin to close Slater and move PACT to Castro, then touted by the district as a "magnet school" bwahaha. PACT was never bucking for its own school. In fact PACT for a long time was disdained by the district office who didn't like the idea that parents might actually know what is best for their own kids. The best thing the district can do is give the parents as much choice as possible - PACT, neighborhood schools, DI, CEL etc. and then get out of the way.

Posted by Interested Observer
a resident of another community
on Dec 2, 2011 at 9:14 pm

To MV Resident: when the PACT program was created, it was under the auspices of the original Mountain View Elementary District. It was deliberately placed at Slater School to improve student achievement scores. Again, if you have access to and analyze the scores of neighborhood Slater students, excluding the PACT students, they were lower than the scores of neighborhood students at Castro, excluding the DI program. When the decision was made to close Slater, many schools wanted the PACT program relocated to their site - namely, Landels and Castro - not because of test scores per se but because of increased parent involvement, which impacts everyone at a school.

Posted by children aren't test scores
a resident of North Whisman
on Jul 30, 2012 at 9:43 am

Why are we so focused on test scores?? The district messed up when it closed Slater...it should not have closed any school! Obviously, since it just had to reopen one soon after. Masking low scores...really? Declining enrollment...really? The Slater neighborhood lost a vital community base. Our children suffered and still do. Our families suffered and still do. Not many children are going to remember their test scores...but they will remember their school. I am thankful my children have their memories of the wonderful Slater School, but I wish all of the children in this neighborhood could also.